1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to improving physical coordination, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for improving dynamic visual acuity in response to stationary or moving objects by controlling the amount of visual information transmitted to the eyes and brain.
2. Description of the Background Art
In order to improve their abilities, athletes generally concentrate on improving their physical capabilities and skills. Muscle tone and strength often play an important role in athletic ability and, as a result, there have been considerable developments in the area of exercise and training equipment. For some sports, muscle tone and strength are not as important as skill, which often comes naturally but more often is the result of repetitive practice. Therefore, a number of practice devices for improving skills have been developed. Examples include batting practice machines for baseball, ball serving machines for tennis, and swing perfecters for golf. These are just a small example of literally hundreds of practice devices which have been developed to improve an athlete's skills.
Many sports, such as baseball, tennis, basketball, football, hockey and skeet shooting require an ability to visually track a moving object of variable speed, and to quickly respond or react to that moving object. Reaction time can often be crucial and, as the speed of the object increases, visually tracking the object and reacting with the required preciseness becomes more difficult. Therefore, the need was seen for devices and methods which would permit an athlete to improve his or her reaction time and visual concentration on the moving object.
In order to improve reaction time and visual concentration, sports vision specialists have traditionally used a strobe light in darkened rooms to limit exposure of the eyes and brain to a moving object during its flight. The shorter exposure time which results from pulsating or "chopped" illumination of a moving object essentially causes the moving object to appear as if it is traveling slower than its actual rate of speed. As a result, a more rapid reaction response is required by the athlete. A significant drawback of this approach, however, is that the use of strobe lights is limited to times when background illumination is dim or non-existent. In other words, ambient light will nullify the strobe effect. Therefore, use of such devices has typically been limited to small, dark, indoor rooms. In addition, the strobe light can limit the athlete's range of motion. For example, if the athlete moves to a position where he or she is looking into the light, the athlete will be "temporarily blinded" by the afterimage that comes from looking into the light. Similarly, if the athlete shifts position so that he or she is outside of the penumbra, the athlete will experience difficulty with insufficient light levels. Also, use of strobe lights creates problems with eye dilation as a result of going from a dark state to a very bright state and then back again. As a result, the contrast of the moving object against the background varies and vision is impaired.
As can be seen, therefore, use of strobe lights becomes impractical for working on a field with a baseball player, on the court with a tennis player, on the ice with a hockey player, or in connection with most other indoor and outdoor sports. As such, a need exists for an apparatus and method for improving dynamic visual acuity in response to moving objects which can be used in an indoor or outdoor setting such as an actual playing field where background lighting can be in accordance with any playing condition, where the player can move freely, and where vision is not impaired from eye dilation. The present invention satisfies such need, as well as overcomes the deficiencies in the devices and methods heretofore developed.